The transition to the second Trump term begins quickly with a decisive election victory

Work to begin staffing the administration and drawing up policy goals will begin immediately. That’s of particular importance to a president-elect who has vowed to rebuild the federal bureaucracy and purge it of “deep state enemies” so he can launch a sweeping effort, such as a massive deportation program, on day one of his presidency.

Compared to 2016, when his victory captivated the world and even his own team, Trump is more prepared to begin implementing his agenda on January 20. Not only is his own organization more cohesive and stable, several well-resourced units filled with alumni from his last administration have spent the last four years laying the groundwork for the next.

“They’re in a much better position than they were in 2016,” said Jack Kingston, a former congressman from Georgia and Trump surrogate who dates to the first campaign. “The first team, it was a rocky transition, a rocky crew, it had a lot of green people.”

This time, Kingston said, there is a “larger player base” of Republicans eager to join the administration, a far cry from 2016, when many credible GOP officials either opposed Trump or were uninterested in joining his administration. Kingston said the pending Trump transition began soliciting names for appointments at key federal agencies at least a month ago.

In particular, Trump’s transition will benefit from a crucial resource he denied President Biden four years ago: cooperation. As Trump refused to accept his defeat in 2020, his administration resisted engaging in basic aspects of the transition process. It wasn’t until Nov. 24, nearly three weeks after Biden won the race, that the General Services Administration, a key federal agency, even acknowledged the victory.

As she conceded in Washington on Wednesday, Harris pledged her and Biden’s full support for a smooth transition. The GSA also issued a statement saying all resources would be made available to Trump.

But that doesn’t mean the process will be smooth. In the weeks leading up to the election, his team broke with longstanding custom by refusing to enter into official agreements with the Biden administration that formally launch key aspects of the transition process.

That decision could potentially slow the transition by delaying when new Trump staff can arrive at federal agencies to begin discussing the handover process, according to Government Executive, a federal government trade publication. In 2016, those memorandums of understanding required the Trump transition to provide the Obama administration with the names of each person authorized to go to each federal agency and certify that each had agreed to transparency rules and a code of conduct.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the status of those deals or the transition effort in general.

While this latest version of Trump’s political apparatus is less burdened by infighting and infighting — the kind that saw Chris Christie booted as the 2016 transition chair just days after the election — Trump’s GOP apparatus remains a circle of sharp elbows. There will almost certainly be intense competition for key administration positions and for influence with the president-elect.

Previews of potential conflict came during the 2024 campaign itself, with Democrats focusing closely on new blueprints for a second Trump term, particularly one drawn up by his allies at the Heritage Foundation think tank. The plan, called Project 2025, outlined detailed policy and regulatory positions — some of them extreme, such as banning pornography — and it also recommended specific personnel to staff an incoming administration.

Democrats tried to make Project 2025 an improbable bogeyman and tried to connect Republicans with its unpopular proposal. In response, the Trump campaign aggressively distanced itself from the former president and the Heritage document — even though its architect, Russell Vought, was a top Trump administration official — and vowed that anyone connected to the plan would fail to secure a position if Trump won re-election.

After Trump’s victory, however, some vocal conservatives boasted that the distancing would be a bait and switch. “It is my honor to inform you all that Project 2025 was real all along,” tweeted influential pro-Trump social media poster Benny Johnson on election night.

The final few weeks of the campaign, as well as the early hours of the transition period, illustrated how the transition could include a mix of familiar figures from Trump’s previous campaigns and administration, as well as power brokers who have rapidly emerged in recent months.

Chairing Trump’s transition effort are Howard Lutnick, the billionaire chairman of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, the professional wrestling entrepreneur who became a GOP power player and eventually Small Business Administration chief in Trump’s first administration.

Elon Musk, the multibillionaire CEO of Tesla and X, has thrust himself into Trump’s inner circle with his allegiance to the president-elect’s positions and, most importantly, the tens of millions of dollars he spent bolstering his election. He was photographed spending time with Trump and his family at his Mar-a-Lago club on election night as well as Wednesday.

Meanwhile, former independent presidential candidate turned Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy has been repeatedly hailed by Trump and his supporters as a leader who will quickly take charge of public health issues. Kennedy has long pushed vaccine skepticism, and while he has been an environmentalist, Trump jokingly warned him on election night to “stay away from the liquid gold,” meaning fossil fuels.

Others reported to be involved are Trumpworld wizards. According to Politico, Robert Lighthizer, who served as U.S. Trade Representative in the first administration, is leading the charge to investigate financial staff, while John Ratcliffe, who was Director of National Intelligence for Trump, oversees national security and intelligence staff.

In 2016, power struggles over the Trump transition were believed to have slowed its progress, given how precious every hour is in the run-up to the inauguration.

While some Trump allies feel optimistic that the 2024 transition will be much smoother, some still echo a warning. “If you blow the 75-day period,” Kingston said, “you can’t recover.”

Sam Brodey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @sambrodey.